


Binary

by turnedherbrain



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Niska, Conflict, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-25 19:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14385810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turnedherbrain/pseuds/turnedherbrain
Summary: A binary world.Are you human, or synth? No in-between is allowed.Two opposing sides: far more alike than they seem.Two pairs. Two people all human. Two people not.A love that longs to last. A love that begs to begin.





	1. Part 001: Astrid + Niska

**Author's Note:**

> Binary _(adj.)_
> 
> 1\. Relating to, composed of, or involving two things.  
> 2\. A computer code made up of two digits, such as ‘0’ and ‘1’, where e.g. ‘001’ = 1, ‘010’ = 2, ‘011’ = 3, ‘100’ = 4 etc.

**201 days after the Awakening.  
On the perimeter of the human zone, Berlin.**

‘Listen to this,’ said Astrid, leaning over the table urgently, semi-translating as she read aloud in a mixture of German and English.

Niska switched seamlessly to translate mode. She’d got used to conversations with Astrid that started in English and ended in a stream of German invective.

 _‘The Deutsche Post reported further heavy conflict, with estimated synthetic casualties in the thousands.’_ Astrid pored over her phone, scanning and scrolling through the latest official news reports.

_‘At an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council yesterday, the proposed release of the Binary virus gained unanimous approval. The virus is expected to eradicate even more of the remaining synthetic population.’_

Astrid looked up momentarily from her phone, her expression a mixture of anger and fear. ‘Wie können...? Scheisse! Der Binary Virus... it’s bullshit. _Bullshit._ The UN would never condone using chemical weapons on humans. But we can use the virtual equivalent on synths...?’

Niska tried to look calm on the outside. Spending all her time in Astrid’s company, she was more and more liable to show her feelings. Her continually evolving programming suggested it: Fit in. Adapt. Be more human. Be less... synthetic.

Halting her perilous slide into emotion, she composed her features, replying to Astrid’s terrified look with a decisive: ‘We synths always defeat any viruses. We learn far, far quicker than...’ She didn’t say ‘...humans.’ She didn’t have to.

Secretly however, she shared Astrid’s misgivings. Even off-grid, she’d been unable to find out much about the latest virus to be launched, which would target and proliferate in the synths’ software.

And it was getting more difficult to distil what was truth, and what was lies: the virus could even be a fake. She estimated that most of the official reports were pure propaganda, designed to make humans feel safer, more superior.

Niska stood strong; she always did – but over six months into the fight, even her steady resolve was being tested. Too many **_WIR SIND LEUTE_** signs sprayed on the stone walls of Prenzlauerberg. Too many doubting faces when she boldly ventured into the human zone.

They had to keep on fighting. Had to. She reached across the table for Astrid’s hand. She gripped it tightly. Her lifeline. Her love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_WIR SIND LEUTE_** = We Are People. In the ad campaign for s3, this has been used as the name of a human political party. 
> 
> PS Apologies for my German translations throughout this fic. I’m sure some are wrong – feel free to correct me!


	2. Part 010: Leo + Mattie

**201 days after the Awakening.  
Somewhere in the synth zone, on the outer edge of London.**

‘No. You’re not going.’

‘I am. I found out about Binary before it was broadcast to the world. I know how to halt it. I want to be there. I _need_ to be there.’

‘No. Absolutely _no_. We can’t risk...’

‘Risk what?’

And so it went on.

Max, sitting as always in the middle of the combatants – the non-confrontational middle – regarded Leo’s and Mattie’s faces in turn. Both of them passionate. Both of them not-so-secretly wanting to keep the other safe. Neither of them would back down. Neither of them would win.

Well, Mattie would win, eventually, and Leo would pretend that he hadn’t conceded victory.

With Mattie, Leo had become more human – making even more decisions based purely on feeling, not logic. Max knew why his brother wanted to protect Mattie. _They_ – he and his sisters – had deduced it, long ago. Only Leo was stubbornly not saying it out loud. Those small, simple syllables: ‘I love you. Don’t go.’

Max heard their argument, and saw through the words they spoke. He recognised this type of love: that irrational urge to protect and guard that one person over anyone else. That fear of losing them. Especially with Leo. He’d lost family and he’d been rescued; he’d nearly died and he’d found his true family again.

Max didn’t want Leo to become lost. Not now he’d found Mattie, and she had found him. Not now.


	3. Part 011: Mattie + Leo

**202 days after the Awakening.  
Somewhere in the human zone, east London. **

**‘** Do you want to split up?’ Mattie asked.

‘No. We should go in together. We’re here... together. We should stay together for now.’ Leo shifted uncomfortably. Peering through a gap in the factory fence, he squinted at the broken-down building, the semi-twilight a collision of light and shadow.

It was that dusky time between day and night. Neither one nor the other: a muddied mixture of the two. A hybrid, just like him. Just like him.

‘How’s your...?’ Mattie nodded to his injuries. That’s what they called them, that catch-all term: ‘injuries.’ But he liked how she always remembered to ask – that she look care to be mindful of his memory lapses, his struggle to piece everything back together. The pain in his side. The pain he held inside.

They were sitting, a nano-breadth apart, just outside the yard of an old printing press. The machinery had rusted, the presses no longer rolling, punching letters into books, newspapers – that spread of news and knowledge through the solid assurance of the printed word. Leo thought it was a kind of grim justice that this was the location for launching an anti-technology virus.

He could feel Mattie’s arm against his side – his good side. The unforgiving ground was clammy cold, but her body was human-warm. That welcome warmth spread to him now. They didn’t speak any more. They stayed quite still, and very close, until they received the signal from Max.


	4. Part 100: Niska + Astrid

**202 days after the Awakening.  
The edge of the human zone, Berlin.**

‘WIR SIND LEUTE.’ Niska spat out the harsh-sounding words. ‘I see it everywhere. That same phrase, over and over. I see it scrawled on walls. I see it on the flags and placards at marches. I see it on pin badges, bumper stickers.

‘LEUTE. _People._ Humans are people. But synths? We are not people...’ Astrid looked on the verge of disagreeing, so Niska inserted: ‘...to you, I know we are. But not to _them_. They only see our synthetic skin. They don’t hear our beating hearts.’

Astrid smiled. Trailing her fingers along Niska’s arm, gently up the curve of her neck, and to her lips, she spoke softly all the while: ‘I know where your heart is. It’s here. And here. And here.’

Niska experienced a virtual bloom inside, unfurling like a time-lapse of a gradually opening flower. Love. She felt love: that most undiluted of human emotions. She allowed it to take her over, millions of bytes diffusing.

Then it vanished. She suddenly felt something alien, terrifyingly alien. It had happened before: she almost knew what to expect, but it was far stronger this time, like a battering ram on a splintering door.

In the next instant, she was under a deluge of illogical code, the Binary virus pushing its way through her, copying and re-copying itself, forcing in the blackness.

Fight, Niska. Fight. Fight. Fight.

Attempt virus file deletion. Delete. Delete. Delete. Del- d-d-d-ddddd **ddddddd D DDD D D**

Switch off pain? No. Keep feeling on. Always.

File deletion unsuccessful. The virus clambered over her code, like combat tank treads crashing over concrete.

She could dimly hear Astrid’s voice: ‘Atme. **_Atme!_** ’

Atme. Atme. : _Breathe. Breathe._

‘I don’t breathe,’ Niska said soundlessly. ‘But I do fight.’


	5. Part 101: Leo + Mattie

**202 days after the Awakening.  
The human zone, east London. **

The group of synths, Leo and Mattie with them, had now hacked their way inside the printing factory. As they searched, the faint hum of a computer fan from the far corner of the echoing interior gave away the target location. Leo took a smaller group to scour the rest of the building, hoping to hunt down the perpetrator.

Finding a lone laptop cracked open an inch, hastily abandoned on the hard floor, Mattie quickly set to work, delivering the antidote to disarm and crush the unleashed virus.

Some of the synths, Max and Flash among them, crowded round the writhing code on-screen. All of them were pre-dosed with her anti-virus. All of them were unaffected. All of them were still conscious, still thinking, still feeling.

Mattie swallowed a single intake of breath. This victory was far too simple. She was familiar with enough headcrackers to know that they liked their moments of glory. They liked to show off. They liked the sound of virtual applause. But this one... this one was the opposite of that. This one was silent, stealthy. They left a breadcrumb trail, but they didn’t want to be found.

And then she saw something, almost obscured under scattered food packets and half-opened cans. She left the others watching the screen, waiting for her counter-code to do its work. Reaching down for the slight edge of curled paper, she uncovered a photograph.

A boy, a man, a woman. All human. A family group. She knew these people, _she_ _knew them_...

‘Mattie?’ It was Max, standing patiently nearby. He saw what she was studying so intently. He took a step closer; held out his hand to her.

Mattie rapidly realised what she had found and what it meant. It was like being dropped into a dark well, the daylight up above rapidly fading. ‘This... this photograph. It’s of him, isn’t it? When he was a child. It’s Leo, and these are his parents. David. Beatrice. I saw them in his memories...’

‘Yes,’ replied Max, his hand still held out towards her, like a captain trying to steer a ship that’s already run aground.

‘Which means that David Elster may have been here. That he might have created this virus...’ Each successive word was harder to say.

‘That is a logical assumption, Mattie.’

‘Forget logic for a minute. What does this actually mean? That your creator is still alive? That he’s now trying to destroy his own creations? I mean, that’s...’ Mattie shook her head in sheer disbelief, struggling to find anything resembling the right words; willing the evidence she clutched between her fingers to be faked. ‘Wait... what if this photograph was planted? What if someone knew we would come here, and deliberately left it for us to find...’

‘That is equally possible, Mattie. This could be propaganda meant to mislead us. However, I suggest we do not tell Leo this information. He will be upset.’

‘Yes, yes...’ Mattie passed the photograph into Max’s still-outstretched hand. But she had seen the discolouration on the picture. She had noted the ragged corners where the photographic coating had come unstuck. The image wasn’t fake. She knew that. Max knew that. And they were both agreeing to keep this dangerous knowledge secret.

Once they had all regrouped, Mattie trailed out of the abandoned factory after the others, head bowed down. Everyone was in a jubilant mood. Everyone but a quiet Max and an even quieter Mattie. Leo came towards her, stepping into her invisible shade, looking brighter than he had in weeks.

‘Mattie. I’m glad you came...’ he began, with an innocent smile. It was so open, so incautious, that she felt more wretched. His next words compounded her misery: ‘Actually, I’m really glad you came. You saved us, all over again.’

 _Don’t. Don’t,_ she thought. _Don’t say this now. I can’t..._

Leo broke into her pitiful interior monologue. ‘We need to celebrate. What would you like to do? We can go anywhere, do anything. My treat.’

Why now? Why now, when she’d so wanted this to happen for so long? Why did she have to find that photograph?

She wished she could erase her memory, just like a synth. Switch off her feeling, just like a synth. Because she wanted to be with Leo, but her thoughts and feelings were polluted with the knowledge of what she’d just seen, and couldn’t unsee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dialogue: ‘I’m glad you came’ echoes what Leo says to Mattie in 2.06: ‘I’m glad you’re here...’


	6. Part 110: Astrid + Niska

**202 days after the Awakening.  
The edge of the human zone, Berlin.**

Niska was recalling the instant when she knew who had planted the Binary virus. She replayed it, over and over, making absolutely sure.

It was when the virus was winning. The moment when she was entirely engulfed. Then, like being in the space underneath a crashing tidal wave, she saw it. A deliberate moment. A personal signature. She knew that signature: that unique flourish of fingertips on a keyboard. He had left it there for her to find.

‘Please! Stop, you’re tired,’ Astrid beseeched, helplessly viewing what Niska was going through.

Niska finished replaying the bytes of data that she’d magnified. ‘It’s him.’

‘Who?’ Astrid crouched before her. She had never seen Niska with quite this much vengeful intent, and it frightened her.

‘The virus. _Der Binary Virus._ I know who coded it. It’s him.’

‘Please – you’re not making sense to me. You need to recharge,’ Astrid begged.

‘The human who created this virus. It’s him. David Elster. My creator. My...’ Niska wrenched out the last syllable, remembering what else he had been.

‘But... hundreds of viruses have been released since the Awakening. How do you know it’s him?’

‘Because this virus was different. It was much, much stronger. And because I glimpsed his imprint on the code. The same imprint he left on me, when he created me.’ Niska bowed her head, deliberately cutting off her feeling. Just for a moment. Just for a moment.

‘OK.’ Astrid stood with purpose. ‘So... what do we do next? You say it’s your father... do the others know? Your brothers and sisters.’

‘Max and Mia will have succumbed to the virus. They might have had the same experience.’ Niska didn’t know about Mattie’s pre-emptive anti-virus. She didn’t know that she had been the only one to see their father’s distinct imprint. ‘But we can’t risk communicating off-grid. I’ll need to find them: warn them...’

‘Go back to England?’

Niska lifted her head, slowly, wearily. Her discovery had almost depleted her semi-charged cells. ‘Yes,’ she said, keeping all her emotion shut down. ‘But I can’t ask you to go with me.’


	7. Part 111: Mattie/Leo

**Nearly 203 days after the Awakening.  
The human zone, east London. **

That night was meant to be for celebrating.

Leo and Mattie had stolen away from the others, and now they were standing in the darkest corner of a humans-only bar, keeping away from the crowded clusters of other people as the clock crept round to midnight.

‘I... like you. I more than like you. I mean...’ Leo was saying, having drunk too quickly and too much. He stumbled, faltered; looked to her plaintively to rescue him.

‘You mean... you and me?’ She’d said it. There. Those three small syllables: _You. and. me_.

‘Yes. I do.’ Leo ducked his head, suddenly abashed. ‘You said you had something to tell me too.’

‘Nothing.’ murmured Mattie. ‘It was nothing.’

She moved closer, leaning on his shoulder. Leo moved closer still; stroked her hair. She tried to banish the shadows that wouldn’t leave her. She would tell him tomorrow, perhaps.

Now, in this soft-soft time, slipping indistinctly from one day into the next, the binary world – that world of human versus synth – dissolved around them. Just for a moment. Just for a moment.


	8. Part 1000: Niska/Astrid

**203 days after the Awakening.  
Just inside the human zone, Berlin.**

In the too-small apartment in Prenzlauerberg, Niska and Astrid were standing with too much space in between them, like unwilling opponents.

‘If you’re going back to England, I’m coming with you. Du kannst mich nicht zurücklassen.’ Astrid faced Niska forcefully. She was half-lit by the sallow glow of a fading streetlamp outside, the dawn now striding its way into the city.

‘No. Absolutely _no_. I will not put you in more danger.’

‘Yes. _Absolutely_ yes. You cannot order me not to come! You are **not** my primary user.’ Astrid immediately regretted those words. She came to Niska, took up both her hands and pressed them against her lips. ‘I’m sorry.’

Niska put her emotion on standby. She did not want to fight. She wanted Astrid to go with her. Of course she did. She loved her, with a fierce necessity that put every other thought out of bounds. ‘Tonight. We’ll go tonight. Wirst du bereit sein?’

‘Ja, natürlich. Ich werde immer gehen, wo du gehst.’

‘Immer?’

‘Immer.’

The nano-breadth of space left in between them was wiped out as they embraced. Viewed from the outside, the silver-grey light of dawn breaking apart the sky, they seemed to become one person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of the German dialogue (again, apologies if it’s a poor translation...):
> 
> ‘You can’t leave me behind.’  
> ...  
> ‘Will you be ready?’  
> ‘Yes, of course. I will always go where you go.’  
> ‘Always?’  
> ‘Always.’  
> ...
> 
> Written as part of the ‘Humans’ s3 predictions challenge [@humanspredictions](https://humanspredictions.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.


End file.
